Abstract
Deliberative decisions based on an accumulation of evidence over time depend on working memory, and working memory has limitations, but how these limitations affect deliberative decision-making is not understood. We used human psychophysics to assess the impact of working-memory limitations on the fidelity of a continuous decision variable. Participants decided the average location of multiple visual targets. This computed, continuous decision variable degraded with time and capacity in a manner that depended critically on the strategy used to form the decision variable. This dependence reflected whether the decision variable was computed either: (1) immediately upon observing the evidence, and thus stored as a single value in memory; or (2) at the time of the report, and thus stored as multiple values in memory. These results provide important constraints on how the brain computes and maintains temporally dynamic decision variables.
Highlights
To better understand how working-memory limitations affect decision-making, we examined how humans made decisions that required interpreting and storing continuously valued visuo-spatial information that is sensitive to capacity and temporal limitations of working memory (Bastos et al, 2018; Funahashi et al, 1989; Panichello et al, 2019; Ploner et al, 1998; Schneegans & Bays, 2018; White et al, 1994)
We used a task that required participants to report remembered spatial locations based on different numbers of objects and for different delay durations, both of which are known to systematically affect the precision of memory reports (Bastos et al, 2018; Cowan et al, 2008; Funahashi et al, 1989; Oberauer et al, 2016; Panichello et al, 2019; Ploner et al, 1998; Schneegans & Bays, 2018; White et al, 1994)
The second was Simultaneous 407 versus Sequential conditions, which extended our investigation to include the effects of working408 memory limitations on decision-making under relatively simple conditions to the effects in a basic case of evidence accumulation over time
Summary
Memory-based, and reward-based decisions depend on an accumulation of evidence over time (Brody & Hanks, 2016; Gold & Shadlen, 2007; Ratcliff et al, 2016; Shadlen &Shohamy, 2016; Summerfield & Tsetsos, 2012). It remains unclear if and how working-memory limitations affect decisions that require interpreting and storing continuously valued quantities whose representations are known to degrade over time (Ploner et al, 1998; Schneegans & Bays, 2018; Wei et al, 2012; White et al, 1994). To better understand how working-memory limitations affect decision-making, we examined how humans made decisions that required interpreting and storing continuously valued visuo-spatial information (visual target locations) that is sensitive to capacity and temporal limitations of working memory (Bastos et al, 2018; Funahashi et al, 1989; Panichello et al, 2019; Ploner et al, 1998; Schneegans & Bays, 2018; White et al, 1994). This condition required participants to adjust to a within-trial change of available decision-relevant information, typifying decisions that require evidence accumulation over time
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